Sharjah: An eight-centimetre long tumour, one of the largest recorded in the country, was removed last week from the womb of a woman without invasive surgery.
Dr Mohammad Zayed, Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sharjah University Hospital, said the 38-year-old patient was initially advised to have surgery through opening her abdomen due to the large size of the tumour.
Severe pain
"The other surgical option, which is what we did for this patient, was a surgery where a special scope is introduced through the cervix into the uterine cavity," said Dr Zayed.
The procedure did not take longer than two hours, and the patient was discharged after three hours.
Finding tumours in wombs is mostly accidental, as the majority of patients discover fibroids during ultrasound scans.
"In the majority of the cases, the patient does not have any symptoms and do not require treatment," he said.
However, in this case, the patient suffered from severe pain and heavy menstrual bleeding that in many cases can lead to severe anaemia, which may require blood transfusion.
Special case
Non-invasive surgery is considered the best type of surgery for patients who want to remain fertile.
This kind of procedure is not done for tumours that exceed five centimetres. "What was special about our case is that the tumour size exceeded seven centimetres, and more than 50 per cent extended deep into the wall of the uterus," Dr Zayed said.
